Chatbots are coming to take over the world

Chatbots are programs powered by artificial intelligence that users can interact with using natural language. This could be any number of things starting from function to have fun, play game or a virtual assistance etc. Chatbot will be useful for information sharing, service integration, media distribution, managing smart devices and reservations and bookings etc

How this works?

If, for example, you want to buy shoes from Flipkart, you visit the Flipkart website and the browse through the selection for brand or style of shoe you are looking for. Filters can help narrow the selection offered

When Flipkart has a Chabot, and eventually it will, you can simply message the Chatbot app and get the choices you are looking for without needing to website surfing or filtering the categories of product. The Chatbot program itself will be intelligent enough to understand your need and preferences.

In another example, many businesses use interactive voice response (IVR) telephony systems, which have limited functionalities and often provide a poor user experience. Chatbots can replace these applications in future where the user will interact naturally to get relevant information without following certain steps or waiting for a logical sequence to occur.

Counterpoint Research has previously provided analysis about how messaging platforms are converting in to powerful social media and commerce enablers. Chatbot will take this to a whole new level. There are lot of players including Facebook, Microsoft, WeChat, Telegram, Line, Slack etc. are taking keen interest. We expect these to develop rapidly based on the companies’ significant investments in natural language processing, as well as optimization of machine learning algorithms.

The future is bright, but…

Chatbots will revolutionize the online commerce platform with,

Customized Business Offerings: Chatbot concept will open up huge opportunities in both the B2B and B2C domains. These applications will provide flexibility to create customized businesses offerings based on customer preferences, pattern recognitions and past purchase behaviour.

One size does not fit all: Advertising will extend beyond demographic and keyword search. Advanced user-level targeting through deep learning and predictive analytics will be possible.

Catalyse new technology evolution: With big players investing heavily in AI, Chatbots are likely to be an increasing feature of social media and other communications platforms. However, careful user interface design will be essential to engage consumers. Clumsy implementations may deter or at least delay consumer acceptance.

Chatbots are a good starting point, but the future lies in more advanced versions of audio and video bots. Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, Google with its voice assistance, are working in the same direction to achieve it. Bot ecosystems will become even more relevant in the phase of IoT mass adoption and improvement of input/output (I/O) technology.

Success of Chatbot requires:

Integrated Ecosystem is the Key: Each and every Chabots needs different approach to start with and therefore creating a deeply integrated ecosystem where one service can easy talk to other would be an important factor to determine success of the Chatbot ecosystem.

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